Harassed: Emma Dining’s social media accounts were hacked
A police officer stalked his WPC ex-girlfriend and hacked into her social media accounts after she dumped him, a court heard.
Constable Stuart Bradshaw, 32, developed an ‘unhealthy obsession’ with Emma Dinning, 28, whom he met through a dating website.
When she ended their short-lived relationship, Bradshaw accessed her Snapchat account more than 250 times to look at messages and photographs, including images of her in her underwear.
He blitzed Miss Dinning with texts saying that he would never ‘give up’ on her and sent a range of gifts, including jewellery and flowers, in the post.
Bradshaw also posted a picture of the WPC and her cat as his Facebook profile picture.
She sent ‘creepy’ Bradshaw a message telling him to leave her alone, but he replied that he had a photograph of her with her new partner.
Miss Dinning later reported Bradshaw, who threatened to harm himself, to the police.
When questioned, the officer, who works for North Wales Police, said she was ‘the love of his life’.
He admitted Miss Dinning didn’t want to know him and that he should have known his behaviour constituted harassment.
Bradshaw was spared jail after he admitted stalking Miss Dinning between July 2016 and March this year. District judge Gwyn Jones, sitting at Flintshire magistrates’ court in North Wales, handed him a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
He was also banned from contacting Miss Dinning for five years. Judge Jones told Bradshaw he had an ‘unhealthy obsession’ with the policewoman and was guilty of a ‘gross invasion of privacy’.
Obsession: Stuart Bradshaw was spared jail after he admitted stalking Miss Dinning between July 2016 and March this year
‘You knew your contact was not going to be welcome,’ the district judge added. ‘But over a period of time, for some eight months, you continued with unhealthy and controlling acts.’
Miss Dinning, who works for West Midlands Police, said she had let Bradshaw – whom she described as ‘unstable’ – into her life for a short time after meeting him on the dating website Plenty of Fish but claimed he abused her trust.
She added: ‘I have a new life, I have moved on. But I feel that he is lurking in the background and is still haunting me.’
Chris Hopkins, defending, said Bradshaw ‘deeply regretted’ the upset he had caused. Bradshaw, of Oakenholt, near Flint, has been off work for ‘some time’ because of mental health problems. He has been suspended from his job pending a disciplinary hearing.